Young boys guilty of trying to rape girl, 8

TWO boys were among Britain’s youngest sex offenders yesterday when they were found guilty of attempting to rape an eight-year-old girl.

A judge ordered the 10-year-old and 11-year-old to sign the sex offenders’ register.

However, Mr Justice Saunders said: “I am not quite sure how it applies to children of this age.”

And last night there were calls for how youngsters are handled by the legal system to change, with a children’s charity claiming the way the case had been dealt with was “absolutely wrong”.

The register is full of paedophiles and rapists whose contact with children and vulnerable people is controlled. If the boys had been younger than 10, they would have been too young to be charged. The youngest person convicted of rape is thought to be 12.

The boys were both 10 in October last year when the girl told her mother they had assaulted her in Hayes, west London.

Despite a teacher for the older boy saying he was a model pupil who exhibited no sexual behaviour, he and his friend lured the girl into some flats. They then took her into a stairwell, a lift and a bin shed, before continuing their assault in a field.

At one point, the girl told the Old Bailey, they threw her scooter into a bush and refused to retrieve it unless she did what they said.

The jury cleared them of two rape offences each, but found them guilty of two offences of attempted rape each by a 10-2 majority.

The boys showed no reaction as they were remanded on bail for eight weeks for reports. They had sat next to their mothers and solicitors during the two week trial at the adult court.

Although allowances were made for their ages and wigs and robes discarded by lawyers, there were concerns that they could not follow proceedings.

The judge said he could not give any indication about sentence at this stage without seeing the reports.

The girl gave a police interview on video and was cross-examined by barristers through a court video-link.

The girl’s mother told the court she found her with the boys near a field after another child said the boys were hurting her.

“She said (the boys) have been doing sex with me,” said the mother. “I was still sitting in the car because I was absolutely stunned by what she had told me. She was very, very embarrassed. She was squirming.”

Harry Fletcher of the National Association of Probation Officers said: “It is a highly unusual case. I would have thought they are the youngest. They would have struggled to understand the proceedings.”

Chris Cloke, head of child protection awareness at the NSPCC, said: “The danger is that a growing climate of sexualisation encourages a view of girls as sex objects.”

Felicity Gerry, a barrister and author of the Sexual Offences Handbook, questioned the decision to take the boys to court.